Flashing for pitch pocket

ABSTRACT

A flashing unit and a flashed support for machinery, such as airconditioners, which produce vibrations and are supported in elevated relation to a roof by support legs surrounded by pitch boxes on the roof. The flashing units comprise a shapable sheet of material having a split collar portion, including a fastening strip having a barbed end receivable in a pocket in the collar, a strip of sealing material on the collar to engage the support leg, and a flaring portion for engaging the rim of the pitch box and adapted to overlap in a line with the split of the collar.

Elnited States Patent 1191 Hatmaker l Mar. 18, 1975 1 FLASHING FOR PITCH POCKET [76] Inventor: James W. Hatmaker, 6400 Little River Tnpk., Alexandria, Va. 22313 22 Filed: Apr. 5, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 348,125

[52] US. Cl 52/60, 52/219, 62/DIG. 16,

138/162, 285/42 [51] Int. Cl E04d 1/36 [58] Field of Search 52/27, 58, 60, 218, 219;

285/42-44, 424; 62/DIG 16; 138/158, 159, l60,l61,l66,l67, 169,162,163

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 818,267 4/1906 Latimer 138/169 1,028,829 6/1912 Reuterdahl 2,054,308 /1936 Tucker 2,648,511 8/1953 2.963,783 12/1960 3,151,469 10/1964 Quick 62/DIG. 16

3,731,952 5/1973 Elwart .f. 285/44 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,287,555 2/1962 France 52/58 Primary Examiner-John E. Murtagh Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Stanley D. Schwartz [57] ABSTRACT A flashing unit and a flashed support for machinery, such as 'airconditioners, which produce vibrations and are supported in elevated relation to a roof by support legs surrounded by pitch boxes on the roof. The flashing units comprise a shapable sheet of material having a split collar portion, including a fastening strip having a barbed end receivable in a pocket in the collar, a

strip of sealing material on the collar to engage the support leg, and a flaring portion for engaging the rim of the pitch box and adapted to overlap in a line with the split of the collar 5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures FLASHING FOR PITCH POCKET BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to an improvement in the construction of buildings. It is common practice to mount air conditioners and similar equipment in an elevated position above the roof of buildings. This equipment is usually mounted above the roof by a plurality of legs which are secured to the supporting members of the roof. These legs are usually separated from the roof covering by means of a pitch box which surrounds the lower end of the legs. These boxes are normally sealed by pouring molten pitch in the boxes. This method of sealing has been satisfactory for nonvibrating machinery, but it has been found that machinery which results in vibrations will crack the seal and allow water leadage through the roof. This has required servicing at frequent intervals to remove the old pitch and replace it with new pitch.

The present invention is directed to means for flashing existing units which have supporting legs and pitch boxes. Since the legs are already in place, the conventional conical flashing such as those which are used in connection with vent'pipes, cannot be used. There thus remains a need for a new form of flashing which can be quickly applied to existing legs without the use of special forming tools.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is the primary object of this invention to provide a new combination of moving equipment elevated above a roof with a plurality of support legs including means to seal the pitch box and prevent leakage through the pitch box.

Another significant object of this invention is to provide a unit which is preshaped to be quickly applied to the support legs of existing equipment to provide long life solution to the problem of leakage through the pitch boxes.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an article of manufacture, a flashing unit which includes a split collar portion to be engaged about a support leg and including a means to seal the collar about the leg and a means to lock the collar together about the support leg.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Briefly, the invention relates to a flashing unit comprising a sheet of shapable material having a collar portion adapted to being fitted to encircle a support leg, the collar portion including a pocket section at one edge of the portion and a fastening element secured to the other edge of said collar portion, a flaring section attached to the collar portion and being adapted to engage the sides of a pitch pocket and to be bent to lock on the rim of the pitch pocket.

The invention also relates to the combination of a building having a roof, a machine producing vibrations elevated above the roof and a plurality of support legs spacing the machine from the roof with a pitch box surrounding each leg at the roof in combination with the flashing unit defined above.

The invention will be better understood and the objects other than those set forth above will become apparent after consideration is given to the following detailed description which makes reference to the annexed drawings, presenting the preferred and illustrative embodiments of the invention, and wherein:

FIG. I illustrates the prior art construction showing the roof with machine and support legs with pitch boxes;

FIG. II shows the same construction after the installation of flashing of the present invention;

FIG. III shows a plan view of one form of the invention prior to installation;

FIG. IV shows a top plan view of the flashing as installed;

FIG. V shows further details of the construction;

FIG. VI illustrates the form of the fastening element; and

FIG. VII illustrates the fastening element prior to installation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. I shows a conventional flat roof 1 covered with built-up roofing 2, an air conditioner 3 elevated above the roof 1 by the support legs 4. Each of the legs is surrounded by a square pitch box 5 filled with pitch 6. The pitch box is usually formed of sheet metal and is provided with a reinforcing rim 7.

FIG. II shows the same combination as FIG. I after the installation of flashing 10 according to the present invention. The flashing unit includes a split collar portion 11 provided with means 12 to clamp the collar about the leg 4, and a flaring portion 13 which extends over the top of the pitch box 5 and is bent about the rim 7 of the box. The flaring portion of the flashing has an overlapping portion and is held together by fastening means 21 which may be sheet metal screws or poprivets.

FIG. III illustrates the developed plan view of the flashing unit. The flashing unit can be made of any shapable sheet material such as a rust resisting metal or sheet rubber or a synthetic plastic. When metal is employed as the sheet material, it has a generally triangular shape. The base of the triangle is selected to provide a distance slightly greater than the perimeter of the pitch box to be covered thereby allowing an over lap at the seam. The edge of the triangular shaped material may be cut in a series of smaller sections to correspond to the individual sides of the pitch box. The unit may be made large enough to cover any pitch box likely to be encountered and the excess trimmed off on the job to suit smaller boxes.

Near the apice of the triangular sheet is a rectangular section 13 which will be bent to form the split collar 11. The upper end of the rectangular section 13 is turned over in order to form a pocket 50, as illustrated in FIG. V.

A band 12 is enclosed in one end of the pocket and may be secured therein by appropriate means such as a rivet or barbs on the band. The band may be made of steel or other suitable metal. The pocket 50 extends the width of the rectangular section and will receive the exposed end of band 12. The sheet is formed so that the rectangular section can be curved or bent about leg 4 of the air conditioner to form the split collar illustrated in FIG. II. The band 12 is fastened in the pocket at one side of the split and projects from the pocket in the unassembled form. This projecting end is preferably formed with a series of barbs 52. When the collar section is curved about the leg 4, the end of the band 12 is inserted into the other end of the pocket in order to complete the collar. The barbs 52 secure the collar about the leg. After the entire flashing is in place the material forming the pocket may be distorted by a hammer blow to permanently lock the barbs 52 in the pocket.

It is desirable, but not essential, to provide the portion of the collar section which will contact the leg with a strip of a flowable sealing compound of mastic which will form a ring about the leg. This strip 54 may be any common mastic used as a roofing cement, and is preferably covered with a temporary layer of paper or the like. This paper will be removed immediately prior to the application of the flashing to the leg.

When the flashing is to be installed, it is first fitted to the pipe and cut to size if necessary to fit the rim of the pitch box. The paper covering the mastic is removed and the barbed end of the band is inserted in the open end 56 of the collar 11 to hold the flashing in place, and the lower end 58 of the flashing is bent about the rim of the pitch box. Screws or pop rivets 21 are placed along the overlapping seam 23 of the flashing and the band 12 is secured in the pocket 50 by a hammer blow.

One of the edges of the seam may be provided with a strip of a sealing compound similar to that used for the ring of the collar according to a preferred embodiment of this invention.

If the flashing unit is made of plastic material, the band and pocket may be molded into the collar portion, and the unit may be molded so that the collar portion is substantially circular so that it may be flexed to be placed around the leg. In this event, the flaring portion will be molded as an essentially square pyramidal section to fit the pitch box.

According to another embodiment of this invention, flashing for a support leg which is of a non-circular cross section can also be employed. In this instance the dimension of the leg may be greater than will be encircled by a single stock flashing unit. If this condition exists, two or more of the flashing units of this invention may be joined together to secure the necessary length of the collar portion. Thus, the fastening band of one unit may be inserted into the pocket of the second unit and the flaring portion of one unit allowed to overlap the second unit and these portions secured together with rivets or screws. The combined unit is then fitted about the leg and the barbed fastener of the second unit inserted into the pocket of the first unit. In this manner, it is possible to apply a metal flashing unit to a variety of shapes of support legs, such as straight bars, angle bars or I-bars. The split collar portion of the metal can be bent to correspond to the shape of the support leg and the ends fastened easily about the leg.

It is believed that it will be readily apparent from the foregoing description that a flashing constructed in the manner taught in this specification and employed in combination with a building, as disclosed, will accomplish the objects set forth at the outset of the present specification. ACCORDINGLY,

What is claimed is:

l. A flashing unit for a pitch box comprising:

a sheet of shapable material having a collar portion adapted to be fitted so as to encircle structure support legs of varying circumferences which project upwardly from said pitch box,

said collar portion including an integral, circumferentially extending exterior pocket having a substantially inverted U-shaped cross-sectional configuration,

an elongate fastening element encircling said collar portion and having one end thereof secure to said collar portion at a position whereby said element is housed under and within said U-shaped pocket and including means disposed upon the other end thereof for cooperating with said pocket for adjusting the effective circumferential extent of said fastening element and said collar portion whereby said collar portion may be tightly secured about one of said support legs, and

aflaring section attached to said collar portion and being adapted to engage the sides of said pitch box and including a lower portion which is adapted to be bent so as to fixedly secure said flaring section upon an upper rim portion of the pitch box.

2. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the collar portion includes a strip of sealing compound adapted to engage the leg portion of the support.

3. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the fastening element has a barbed end portion for reception in said pocket.

4. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the collar portion is in the form of a rectangle and the pocket is formed by a bent over section of the sheet, and in which the fastening element is clamped in one end of said pocket.

5. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the flaring portion comprises a plurality of sections having the end cut to engage the pitch box. 

1. A flashing unit for a pitch box comprising: a sheet of shapable material having a collar portion adapted to be fitted so as to encircle structure support legs of varying circumferences which project upwardly from said pitch box, said collar portion including an integral, circumferentially extending exterior pocket having a substantially inverted Ushaped cross-sectional configuration, an elongate fastening element encircling said collar portion and having one end thereof secure to said collar portion at a position whereby said element is housed under and within said U-shaped pocket and including means disposed upon the other end thereof for cooperating with said pocket for adjusting the effective circumferential extent of said fastening element and said collar portion whereby said collar portion may be tightly secured about one of said support legs, and a flaring section attached to said collar portion and being adapted to engage the sides of said pitch box and including a lower portion which is adapted to be bent so as to fixedly secure said flaring section upon an upper rim portion of the pitch box.
 2. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the collar portion includes a strip of sealing compound adapted to engage the leg portion of the suppoRt.
 3. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the fastening element has a barbed end portion for reception in said pocket.
 4. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the collar portion is in the form of a rectangle and the pocket is formed by a bent over section of the sheet, and in which the fastening element is clamped in one end of said pocket.
 5. A flashing unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein the flaring portion comprises a plurality of sections having the end cut to engage the pitch box. 